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The script on your big blue strapped bottle is a fairly early script - though the "drilling from side-to-side" to form the letters is more mid- later '70s, Michael, and while the script on the side-stripe can be read as "Molina", it's an earlier interpretation of the "molina" way of writing it.... and the tons and tons of silver chloride used in it says more '70s than '80s to me...... if any of that makes sense!

Anik - John's showing off (and why not, John :kissy: if you've got a beautiful beast like that!) - that's a very, very scarce shape of Fish - with a "button" rim. They normally have a long tapered neck.

The features that make it a Fish are the big partial casings of "wings" on either side of a (normally) already cased lollipop shape, with thin strands of glass crossing over between the two "wings".

The style of the Mdina signature on your bottle is what I think is found from the mid seventies probably well into the eighties. Whoever it was who did the signing must have signed thousands and thousands of items. The Mdina on your blue green vase is in the same hand (3rd photo).

The side stripe signature I think is later and by another distinctive 'hand', possibly eighties into the nineties. The dates are mostly guess work on my part though.

Anik, a simple rule of thumb: fish vases have those trails (well, very nearly always) and lollipop vases don't.

Thanks, Sue and John!It's nice to learn more about Mdina glass from you (even if it seems difficult to find out the production date for these post Harris pieces

BTW, only when taking the base pic I realized that in my side stripe vase the i is missing in the mark -- it says Mdna

And yes, John's early fish vase is absolutely stunning -- in any light.I have this tall "earthtones" vase which looks really beautifully translucent when backlit, but a little dull and opaque otherwise...

Cylindrical vase, 20 cm high, tortoiseshell pattern with lots of streaky iridescence.Again not very early I think, but quite unusual with the clear glass being greenish-yellow, and the brown mottling stopping in the lower third of the vase...

I might disagree just a little with John about the Tortoiseshell - I think there is a possibility it might be early to mid '70s.I have these two vases, one is Mdina, the other is early IoWSG. There is a very squished flame pontil mark on the base of the IoWSG. (It took suzygpr to spot it - I hadn't!).The script looks the same as yours.

There is considerable variation in the colour of the clear glass used in the earlier days. Cullet had to be imported, it wasn't the best quality and they hadn't worked out how to improve it.

We are of the opinion that the raised foot does indicate earlier. (aren't we, John?).I have a lovely tortoiseshell cylinder with a raised foot, but the "Mdina" script is not fine like the two we've got illustrated here - it's been done with something that jiggles from side to side, making the script thick - more indicative of mid-later '70s & into the '80s.

And a glorious Earthtones cylinder, with a raised foot and the very fine script.

(Sorry, the feet don't show and I don't have script pics available atm. You'll just have to take my word for it!)

:pb: That Earthtones vase is the second bit of Mdina I ever bought. I knew next-to-nothing about glass when I found it - it called to me across the room, but I honestly thought it had been carved out of a lump of agate!